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The Namesake
Jhumpa Lahiri

 

 

From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Interpreter of Maladies, Jhumpa Lahiri's critically acclaimed first novel is a finely wrought, deeply moving family drama that illuminates her signature themes: the immigrant experience, the clash of cultures, the tangled ties between generations. The Namesake takes the Ganguli family from their tradition-bound life in Calcutta through their fraught transformation into Americans. On the heels of an arranged marriage, Ashoke and Ashima Ganguli settle in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where Ashoke does his best to adapt while his wife pines for home. When their son, Gogol, is born, the task of naming him betrays their hope of respecting old ways in a new world. And we watch as Gogol stumbles along the first-generation path, strewn with conflicting loyalties, comic detours, and wrenching love affairs.

www.houghtonmifflenbooks.com

 

Reader's Guide

Interviews

Book Reviews

Additional works by Jhumpa Lahiri

  • Unaccustomed Earth, 2008
    Excerpt: "Hell Heaven" New Yorker, 24 May 2004.
  • Interpreter of Maladies, 2002

Additional Reading

For Fun

  • The Namesake - A YouTube video of Chapters 5 and 6 told through puppetry


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